So who are we? Here's a short biography for Dr David Hillson, and Dr Ruth Murray-Webster - the creators of the RARA model, and thought leaders on how to practically address the risk appetite and risk attitudes of decision-makers during active risk management.

Dr David HillsonFRSA FIRM HonFAPM PMI-Fellow CMgr FCMI MIODDavid is an international risk consultant offering expert risk support across the globe, at both strategic and tactical levels. He has worked in nearly fifty countries and his consultancy clients include major organisations in construction, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, transport, fast-moving consumer goods, energy, IT, defence and government. David also leads the team at The Risk Doctor Partnership, based on his worldwide network with like-minded professional risk experts. With over twenty-five years of risk consulting experience, David is recognised internationally as a leading thinker and practitioner in risk management, and he is a popular conference speaker and author on the subject. He has written nine major books on risk, and contributed to several others, as well as writing many papers, articles and briefings. He has made a number of innovative contributions to the risk process which have been widely adopted. David is well-known for promoting inclusion of proactive opportunity management in the risk process. His recent work has clarified the softer aspects of risk, including ground-breaking practical approaches to risk attitude, risk appetite and risk culture, and he has also developed a scaleable project risk methodology. Dr Hillson has received a number of awards in recognition of his risk management work. For example he was named Risk Personality of the Year in 2010-2011 by the Institute of Risk Management (IRM). He was the first recipient of this award, given to honour the individual who has made a significant global contribution to improving risk management knowledge, whose experience and expertise enables them to effectively promote the message of strong risk management, and who provides inspiration to their peers in the risk profession. He is a Fellow of the IRM and active in several of its SIGs. David Hillson is an active member of the global Project Management Institute (PMI®), and he has received several awards which recognise his sustained and significant contribution to advancing the field of risk management in projects. In 2010 David was elected a PMI Fellow, and he has also received the PMI David Cleland PM Literature Award (2013), the PMI Eric Jenett PM Excellence Award (2011) and the PMI Distinguished Contribution Award (2002). David is currently a leader in the PMI Risk Community of Practice. He has contributed to the risk chapter of the PMI Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK®) since 1998, and he was a core author of PMI’s Practice StandardforProject Risk Management (2009). David became an Honorary Fellow of the UK Association for Project Management (APM) in 2008, marking his contribution to developing the discipline of risk management. He is a past Chairman of the APM Specific Interest Group (SIG) on Risk Management, and he has co-edited three major risk guides for APM. David was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 2007 to contribute to its Risk Commission. He led the RSA Fellows project on societal attitudes to failure, and is editor of The Failure Files. He is also a Chartered Fellow with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), and a member of the Institute of Directors (IOD), reflecting his broad interest in topics beyond his own speciality of risk management.

Dr Ruth Murray-WebsterDBA, MBA, HonFAPM, CMIRM

Ruth is an experienced consultant and practitioner in the areas of risk and organisational change. She works part-time as Director of the Change Portfolio and Group Head of Risk for Associated British Ports Ltd and in the remainder of her time supports a wide range of clients with specific risk and change related challenges through her consultancy, Potentiality UK.

Prior to 2015, Ruth was Director of the Risk in the Boardroom practice with KPMG LLP and before that 10 years as a Director of Lucidus Consulting Ltd supporting clients on risk-based change challenges including Rio Tinto plc, Hewlett Packard Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell plc.

Together, Ruth has 30 years of experience in a series of roles to enable organisations in most sectors to deliver change objectives. Along this journey, Ruth researched organisational change from the perspective of the recipients of change for an Executive Doctorate at Cranfield School of Management.

Ruth’s parallel interest in risk management arose from a passion to help organisations to take educated risks, not avoid them. She has co-authored four books on the people aspects of risk management with David Hillson (Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude, 2007; Managing Group Risk Attitude, 2008; A Short Guide to Risk Appetite, 2012), and Penny Pullan (A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management, 2011) and more recently two book chapters for Kogan Page specifically on the subject of risk and organisational change.

She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Association for Project Management in 2013 for her services to risk and change.

The synergies between the two disciplines continue to drive Ruth’s thinking, writing and practice.